Jukim

The word "jukim" in Hebrew is colloquial for cockroach and is also used to describe large insects. While I gave you an introduction to Cockroach season in my blog 4 years ago, I am now more intimately acquainted with these creatures. I do not consider myself someone who is scared of bugs for the most part and I have encountered jukim in the past, both dead and alive. If dead then I dispose of them accordingly; if alive I find the closest shoe and finish the deed. No big deal, right? I thought so, until last week.

The Tel Aviv summer is hot and I am not a huge fan of air conditioning when I sleep so the windows are open in the evening and nighttime. It was 1 am and my daughter started to cry, most likely because her teeth are coming in. I get up to go and sooth her and in my bleary-eyed state I see something crawl across the floor of her room. I don't think anything of it. She falls back asleep and I collapse back into bed. I told Ariel that all was well and turned over.

A few seconds later Ariel's hand swats at something. "What was that?" I ask. "Uh, I don't know, nothing." A second later I feel something creeping on my arm. I jump up and turn on the light to find a large brown cockroach sitting on the edge of my bed. I pick up a shoe, but don't want to squish it into my sheets so I gently push it to the floor. As Israelis will tell you, the cockroaches in this country are special in that they have wings. So instead of dropping to the floor, this guy disappeared. I picked up the mattress and looked under the bed, but it was nowhere to be seen.

As I mentioned earlier, I am not the girl to get freaked out by insects, but I have never had to encounter cockroaches flying on me in my sleep. Ariel pointed out that they do not sting or bite or make annoying noises, so really they are not so bad. Rationally, he may be right, but it still took me a while to fall back asleep.

I have been in Israel for 5 years now and started to feel less like a new immigrant. Nothing like a roach to remind me that I still have a few things to learn.

(Epilogue: The exterminator came on Friday and I am happy to report that I have had no repeat encounters.)

Post mark: After writing this blog entry I vagu